The Cricketers, Enfield

Virtually next door to the Crown and Horseshoes is the McMullens run Cricketers, another good looking pub from the outside that, as another reviewer has commented, does have a bit of a cricket pavilion aura about it, especially with the white picket fence on its perimeter. Internally, although the Mac’s internal design team have had a go at it over the years giving it the usual clean modern lines it still retains a traditional pub feel and there is plenty of cricketing artefacts and memorabilia abounding to give the place a bit of character. You enter onto the main long carpeted central service bar with its seating opposite and then the pub opens out into larger seated areas at either end of the bar. Like the pub next door there is a focus on food here but the bar does support four ale pumps with the usual McMullen suspects and Country, IPA, AK and Quin from their Rivertown brewery arm were on yesterday. The only issue with this one is that there’s not a great deal of external space, only the tables to half the front and the courtyard round to the side, which is why I tend to favour this one more in the winter months.

This is a McMullen's pub that had on their Hop & Glory, IPA, AK, and Country (£3.70 a pint). All the beers were being dispensed through sparklers, which unfortunately I didn't notice until the barmaid had already pulled two-thirds of a pint of froth into one of the glasses. Apparently (according to the barmaid) beer looks nicer when pulled through a sparkler. But at least she knew what a sparkler was, and how to remove it on request. I suppose the use of sparklers is a hazard one might expect to encounter when travelling up north to somewhere like Enfield. The emphasis seemed to be on food when we visited on Thursday afternoon, with just about everyone other than my companion and I dining. Main courses are around £8 - £10, with the pie of the day at £9.40, bangers & mash £7.95, and burger & chips at £7.25. Sandwiches are all £5.55. This all seemed quite reasonable to me. This place has now been given a smart modern look, with light pastel shades of grey everywhere, and a big pile of logs piled up next to a fireplace seemingly as a decorative feature. The cricketing paraphernalia is all still there of course, with numerous cricket related photographs and prints on the walls, as well as a display of cricket bats on the chimney breast on the left, with a display of cricket balls on the one on the right. There's a sizeable garden to the side of the pub. This is a reasonable enough place to visit. I saw it as the sort of pub to which you could take your mother. The beer was in good shape, once we had resolved the sparkler issue, and it has quite a nice setting away from the main road. I'd happily visit this one again.